You've Got Jail

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/march/8.14.html

[Christianity Today] 18 Feb 2009--Longtime missionaries David and Fiona Fulton were sentenced by a Gambian court to a year of hard labor last December after pleading guilty — in hopes of a lenient sentence — to sedition charges stemming from a wry comment e-mailed to a prayer list.

After nearly a decade of service in the West African Muslim nation, the Fultons, missionaries from an Assemblies of God church in Britain, experienced a string of difficulties, including a disagreement that led them to part with their local church. At about the same time, David reduced his role as an army chaplain and was assaulted by a man he described as a Muslim fundamentalist.

"Now how [a growing extremist element] should be dealt with, I don't know," David wrote in an e-mail to supporters. "(I have suggested that we arm the Muslims with sticks and the Christians with machine guns and let them fight it out.) [B]ut seriously, while I will defend myself and my family I don't believe that I will or should take any part in a physical proactive role against them, that's the government's job."

Someone on the Fultons' prayer list forwarded the e-mail to Gambian authorities. "This unfortunate comment did not go down well with the authorities, who saw it as incitement," said Khataza Gondwe, the officer for sub-Saharan Africa at Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The e-mail became the basis for the sedition charges. Other charges have followed.